This invention relates generally to the field of television, and more particularly to a system and method of separating luminance and chrominance signals from a composite video signal.
A television (TV) operates by displaying video images in response to a composite video signal received from a TV station or Video Cassette Recorder (VCR), for example. The composite video signal comprises both luminance (luma) and chrominance (chroma) information. The luma portion contains the black-and-white TV signal information, and the chroma portion contains the color TV signal information.
There are two standards for video signals commonly in use today, one being the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) which is used in the United States and Japan. An ideal frequency spectrum for luma (Y) and chroma (C) information in a composite NTSC video signal is shown in FIG. 1a. In NTSC, the chroma phase shift is 180 degrees between the same pixel or two consecutive lines. Another standard for video signals is Phase Alternating Lines (PAL), used in Europe. An ideal frequency spectrum for luma (Y) and chroma (C) information in a composite PAL video signal is shown in FIG. 1b. In PAL, the chroma phase shift is approximately 270 degrees from line to line. Vertical and horizontal synchronization signals also occupy the lower portion of the frequency spectrum in both standards, not shown.
In the NTSC standard, the chroma signal is added to the composite video signal by superimposing a 3.579545 MHz sine wave onto the standard black and white (luma) signal. After the horizontal sync pulse, 9 cycles of a 3.579545 MHz sine wave are added as a color burst. Following these 9 cycles, a phase shift in the chrominance signal indicates the color to display. The amplitude of the signal determines the saturation. A black and white TV filters out and ignores the chrominance signal, whereas a color TV separates the chrominance signal out of the composite video signal and decodes it, along with the normal intensity signal, to determine how to modulate the three color beams of the TV set.
When received by a color TV set, the composite video signal is typically input to a video decoder, which separates the luma and chroma information, and applies gain and offset factors to them in order to map them to a standard output range. A problem arises from luma Y frequencies that fall near the chroma subcarrier frequency fsc: false color can be demodulated and output from the video decoder. This problem can be seen around sharp contours in text characters and horizontal and diagonal lines. Another problem that can occur is hanging dots where two different colors are adjacent to one another horizontally.
What is needed is a device and method for eliminating false colors and hanging dots in video signals to produce a clearer TV image.
The present invention achieves technical advantages as an adaptive comb filter and method of separating chroma from a composite video signal to provide a luma signal having no false colors and hanging dots. Color boundaries of the composite video signal are analyzed to select an optimal comb filter. The comb filter outputs are generated by averaging the pixels from the current line with corresponding pixels from previous lines. False color is distinguished and cancelled by averaging the selected successive lines.
In one embodiment, disclosed is a color comb filter including circuitry for generating color filter selections for filtering a chroma video signal, and control logic adapted to determine the filter selections. The filter selections are determined based on color boundary properties of the chroma video signal to eliminate hanging dots and false colors problematic in the prior art.
In another embodiment, disclosed is a video decoder having a demodulator adapted to separate a chroma signal from a composite video signal, a comb filter coupled to the demodulator adapted to filter the chroma signal based on color boundary properties of the chroma signal, and a subtractor coupled to the comb filter. The filtered chroma signal is subtracted from the composite video signal to produce a luma signal absent of hanging dots and false colors of the prior art.
Also disclosed is a method of separating luma and chroma signals from a composite video signal, including the steps of demodulating the composite video signal to generate a chroma signal, low pass filtering the chroma signal to remove first and second harmonics from the chroma signal, and color comb filtering the chroma signal based on color boundary properties of the composite video signal. The filtered chroma signal is remodulated and then subtracted from the composite video signal to produce a luma signal.
The present invention is advantageous in providing an adaptive comb filter capable of filtering chroma from a composite video signal to produce a luma signal absent false colors and hanging dots problematic in the prior art. The present comb filter may be used in both NTSC and PAL video systems, whereas prior art comb filters were typically designed for one particular standard. False color may be distinguished and cancelled by averaging successive lines. Color boundaries within a 3xc3x973 pixel window are recognized and a 2-line or delayed chroma input is selected such that hanging dot artifacts do not occur. The invention has user- programmable modes of operation, which include the choice of two different three line comb filter coefficients and the choice of a 2-line or no comb when a color boundary is present. The present invention also has programmable thresholds, which affect color boundary detection.